Have an idea of something we should discuss? Drop us a line at press@pokerupdate.com. We would love to hear from you!

Transcription Below

Coming up next on the PokerUpdate.com Weekly Burn & Turn: We talk about the resolutions that poker pros need to make for the new year; also, what professions make for a good poker pro; and, who are the biggest winners for 2015? Finally we end off with an amazing surprise for Shimi Weiss, in more ways than one. Right after this.

Welcome back everybody to another exciting episode of the PokerUpdate.com Weekly Burn & Turn for the week of December 13th, 2015. I’m Robbie Strazynski.

And I’m Shimi Weiss.

And we’re here to bring you some more excellent and fun poker entertainment. Are you ready?

Absolutely.

No, I wasn’t asking you. I was asking them.

No, you were asking me. Let’s get going.

Okay, so we’ll jump right into it. New Year is coming up, 2016, and here are 5 New Year’s Resolutions for Poker Pros. Great article by James Guill. No?

Oh god.

It was a great article!

It was a great article, but right out the gate with #1, James you completely threw me. I didn’t know what type of article I was reading.

Well, what was the first in James’ article?

You gotta get laid in order to be a good poker player.

I see.

This was James’ point.

Oh, James. Interesting. So this was the new year’s resolution for James?

He put out a quote from Barry Greenstein. Definitely check out the article.

There was a very interesting quote. Would you like to read it?

I actually would. Barry, I hope you’re watching. Did you really write this? (*Quote Says: “If you have sex before you go to sleep, you probably will be more rested and less distracted when you play. Therefore, a sex partner who travels with you can be a big asset. In theory, if your partner isn’t with you when you go on an extended poker trip out of town, a relatively steady substitute will give you a competitive advantage.”*)

Okay.

101 marriage tips by Barry Greenstein.

I think he’s divorced, Shimi.

Okay, that’s a little awkward.

Moving on to other new year’s resolutions for poker pros. Also, thank you James for what you did. Remember the gerbils episode?

Yeah! No gerbils!

A serious resolution, though, is to play more poker. You could always increase the frequency of your games, whether it’s live or online. Open up your repertoire, don’t just play hold’em, try Omaha, Badugi, Razz.

What’s your new year’s resolution this year, Robbie?

My new year’s resolution is to finally subscribe to the Weekly Burn & Turn.

Ooohh!

And that should be your resolution too!

It’s sad that most resolutions don’t actually work.

No, no, I really see it happening. I think that we’ll get at least one new subscriber in the new year.

My new year’s resolution is to trim my beard more regularly.

Uhm, yes, maybe we should come up with some better resolutions next time.

There we go.

Let’s move to the next topic: 7 Professions that Breed Good Poker Players, an article by Jennifer Newell. There were a lot of interesting suggestions in there. I think she put lawyer and psychologist in there – interesting suggestions.

I like salesman. I was a salesman before this.

That’s true because you’ve got to be able to sell your game and your image, but we’ve got a few alternative, interesting professions that would breed a good poker player. For example, executioner.

An executioner?

Yeah because what better way to end a tournament life than by execution.

You know, in knockout tournaments it’s pretty much like being a hitman. You’re getting paid to knock somebody out. You’re looking for that target.

Another great profession for poker players is trash collector, or sanitation engineer, because you’re getting all these cards and you’re like, “Uh, more garbage.” You’ve got to keep throwing it into the muck, so trash collector is the perfect thing to breed a poker player.

Absolutely. A good trash collector knows how to use those mucky cards and make them work.

Another profession, and you put this one down Shimi, is toll collector.

A toll collector is the guy who knows how to grind out in a tournament because he knows how to collect change here and there from every single person. You like what I did there?

I see what you did there. Build your stack slowly. Magician, right?

Yeah!

Antonio Esfandiari the Magician! That’s a great one. I’d be scared to play against a magician.

I would too. You start to wonder where your chips are going.

I’ll tell you, they’re not going Shimi’s way. That’s for sure.

No, no, no. I like to make sure that you always have the smallest denomination chip in front of you, that way you can actually get a chance to build those big towers. It’s the only way that I get to do it at a tournament.

Well done, Shimi. I also suggest another great profession to breed good poker players: Marine Biologist.

Okay, why?

Well, I mean, it worked for George Costanza, right? On Seinfeld, when he was a marine biologist? No?

*Blank Face* …

Well it worked for Jason Alexander, the man who played George Costanza, because he is a friend of PokerStars. You see? No?

No, no.

I guess that’s why Jennifer didn’t put it on the list, but we tried.

Well as a marine biologist you can tell the difference between the sharks and the fish. There you go.

Aahhh!!! And the whales!

I like it.

Okay, put it on back on the list.

Alright!

Shimi, one thing we love about poker is winning – not that you would know about such a thing.

You know, I’ve had my two-outer moments that hit.

Was it this year though?

Not this year, but my resolution is to have one of those moments next year.

We’ll see. Well, James put together another article here about ‘The Big 5 Poker Winners of 2015.’ One of them was Twitch Poker. Absolute winner.

Absolutely.

The fact is, we’ve got Jaime Staples, Jason Somerville, Joe Ingram and so on, and that’s where the new audience is: on Twitch. New people are coming from Twitch, and it’s people who are usually e-gamers. They’re playing World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Hearthstone and so on, and these great streamers are putting together interesting and entertaining content. We’re not on Twitch yet but maybe that’s what we’ll be doing in 2016.

Could be. Maybe. I’ve got to pick a bone with James, again. He missed one of the biggest winners from this past year.

Who are you talking about?

Me!

You?

Dude, I got the hand! I called the most memorable televised poker hand. That was the number one win in poker of 2015.

Another interesting winner: Gimmick events at the WSOP. Actually, these were very well attended. People were talking and writing about it. You had the Colossus, the Super Seniors Event, the DraftKings 50-50 event, the 777 event, and so on.

It brought a lot of interest to the WSOP. We saw how many people signed up for these events.

The fact is, the very wonderful staff at the WSOP put their heads together, and yes they were gimmicks, but thousands and thousands of people attended and it totally worked.

Well I’m happy you mentioned that, Shimi, because speaking of gimmicks we actually prepared something. Shira, the editor of PokerUpdate who was also on an episode of the Burn & Turn, had an idea to catch Shimi off guard.

Oh shoot! Shira what are you doing?

Let’s have the envelope please. We’ve got some questions for you, Shimi. We wanted to try a little game here.

Alright, you know what? Bring it on.

Basically we’re going to ask you to guess the poker player we are thinking about.

Okay, absolutely. Walt Disney!!

No!

He played poker.

He played poker? Really?

No.

Okay, well you got that one wrong. We have three clues for you. Here are our questions for you. If you guys like it, we’ll do this again. Okay, so, clue number 1 for Shimi. Can you name this poker player? So, this player’s largest score took place in a tournament played in by fewer than 100 people. Take a second.

Alright. I’m just going to stab in the dark here. Phil Ivey!

No, that is not the right answer.

Oh come on! Phil, man, I banked on you!

Although I do think that Phil Ivey’s largest score came at the Aussie Millions earlier this year. It was for almost $4 Million and they were fewer than 100 people. So you were right, but you’re wrong. Clue number 2: This player will be attending the upcoming PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in the Bahamas.

That totally narrows it down. I mean, there’s only like several thousands of people who are going to be there, right?

Well you know it’s not Phil Ivey.

Okay, not Phil Ivey, so let’s go with another Phil. I’m going to throw my hat in the ring and say Phil Hellmuth.

No! Incorrect.

Come on! None of the Phils are working out for me. Is there any other Phil I can guess?

No, but we do have one more clue for you Shimi, and we hope this one gives it to you. This poker player is sitting right next to you.

I don’t know. I think this is a trick question. Is Robbie a poker player?

I am a poker player. I’m not a professional poker player.

I’m going to have to go with this. Wait, are you going to the PCA? Robbie Strazynski? No freaking way. Seriously man?

Seriously, I am.

Wow.

Talk about a surprise.

That’s pretty amazing. Are you taking me with you?

No.

Okay, you suck. Wow. Congratulations man.

Thank you! PokerStars will actually be sending me to the Bahamas in a couple of weeks.

That’s amazing!

Shimi really didn’t know. The PCA is what the YouTube channel is going to be about. I’m hopefully going to be producing a lot of great content there. Hopefully interviews with some of the big pros, maybe some selfies, some screenshots, but what we want you guys to do is to stay tuned. It’s going to be for a couple of weeks. I think it’s from January 5th or 6th, through the 13th or 14th. We’re going to be putting a lot of great videos and content for you.

That’s exciting. Will Shira be replacing you while you’re away?

Yes, Shira will take this seat.

Bring back Shira! Alright!

You guys got what you wanted. Send me far away. So yes, Shira will be joining Shimi for the Weekly Burn & Turn and that will continue happening. Of course, be sure to subscribe to the PokerUpdate YouTube Channel to get all of those videos. It’s very cool because when we upload a video I get a notification on my phone.

Did we hit a 100,000 likes on the last video by the way?

No we didn’t.

I think we were close. I think we got 99,000.

Well, that didn’t work but I guess PokerStars was listening because they sent us to the PCA. If you’re watching on Facebook, be sure to like, share, comment. Let your friends know about it. We’re always happy to get new viewers. Comment on YouTube as well. I guess that’s the end of our show this week.